Designing Desire project

Flight dream
developed with Dianna Miller, Phyllis Mancino

How can we address the desire to fly?

Flightdream is an interactive evening cape, a glamorous piece of enhanced clothing designed to give the sensation of flight to the wearer and to displace onlookers altering the perception of the space around her. When the wearer moves and air softly inflates the cape the movements are gently accompanied by the subtle sound of a breeze, allowing in the wearer a daydreaming sensation of flight.

Developing this project we identified the potential for digital interactivity to be used as a style element rather than purely as a means of functionality. Exploring this potential involves looking at interactive behavior not in terms of utility, but in terms of imagination and identity (the ultimate "utility" of fashion).
 
Application

The primary user of this type of subtle mapping of sound to fabric would be fashoin designers. In time, we envision this type of solution as a part of the fashion designer's design vocabulary, just as fabric qualities such and texture and color , or style elements such as collar shape or hem length, are used.

Technology

Piezo-ceramic microphones, Max sound mixing software, a hooked board of an external USB microphone

A documented workinprogress

The project is fully documented, concerning the design problems and process, in the dedicated web site www.flightdream.org.